Railway-crossing.



l. W. BURNS & W. BEACH.

RAILWAY CROSSING.

APPLICATIONl FILED NOV. 25| l9|6.

Patented June 19, 1917.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN W. BURNS AND WILLIAM BEACH, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA; ySAID BURNSASSIGNOR F ONE-HALF OF HIS RIGHT TO GROVER C. BROTHERS, OF LOS ANGELES,

CALIFORNIA.

RAILWAY-CROSSING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 19, 1917.

Application filed November 25, 1916. Serial No. 133,824.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, JOHN W. BURNS and IVILLIAM BEACH, both citizens ofthe United States of America, and both residing at Los Angeles, countyof Los Angeles, State of California, have invented a certain new anduseful Railway-Crossing; and we do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the, invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

This invention relates to railway crossing, and it may be said toconsist in the provision of the novel and advantageous features and inthe novel and improved construction, arrangement, and combination ofparts as will be apparent from the description and claims which followhereinafter.

The main object of the invention is to provide a novel and improvedconstruction whereby upright slidable blocks are automatically operatedby car wheels and adapted to fill the gaps between the main rails andthe crossing rails so as to obtain the effect of continuous rails andthereby avoid the shock, jar, noise, and wear which ordinarily results:from carwheels passing over open gaps between the main rails and thecrossing rails.

Further objects of the invention are to provide a construction of thenature specified which is comparatively simple in character, strong anddurable, economical to manufacture, install7 and maintain, effective andconvenient to use, and which can be applied to existing railway crossingwithout much change, trouble or expense.

Other objects and the advantages of the invention will be apparent tothose skilled in the art from a careful consideration of the followingdescription of the preferred form of the construction embodying theinvention, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which-Figure 1 is a broken plan view showing a railway crossing having theinvention applied thereto; F ig. 2 is an enlarged broken cross sectionalview taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a broken cross sectionalview of the railway crossing taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 isa broken view showing the manner of operation of the construction; Fig.5 shows side, end, and plan views of one of the gap blocks; Fig. 6 is aplan view of the gap blocks mounted on the bar, and'Fig. 7 is a of thesame.- I

In the description of the construction similar parts are designated bylike reference characters. f

The main rails 8 and the crossing rails 9 may be of any suitable form;those shown being formed with a head having a groove 10, a base 11, anda web 12 connecting thev head and base.

As seen more clearly in Figs. 2 and 3, adjacent ends of the main rails 8are connected by the plates 13 which are suitably secured to the web 12of said rails. plates 13 is suitably arranged a pivot 14 on which ismounted the central portion of a bar 15 which is disposed obliquelyagainst the beveled ends of the adjacent main rails 8. Angle plates 16and 17 and straight plates 18 and 19 adapted to guide the pivoted bars15 may be suitably mounted on the webs 12 of the main rails 8 and thecrossing rails 9. The webs l2 of the main rails 8 and the crossing rails9 are also preferably connected by angle plates 20 which are suitablyfasbroken elevational view On each of the SOE tened to said webs 12. Onthe end portions f of each of the bars 15 are mounted the lower ends ofthe upright blocks 21 which are fitted movably in the gaps 22 ordinarilyeX- isting between the main rails 8 and the crossing rails 9. The pairof blocks 21 on each bar 15 are preferably arranged at right angles toeach other as seen more clearly in Figs. 6 and 7, and they preferablyhavel their lower ends 23 cut away or pointed and arranged to bear onthe upper part of the bar 15. lStops or shoulders 24 on the blocks 21are adapted to engage the heads of adjacent rails to limit the upwardmovement of the said blocks, and stops 25 on the bases 11 of theadjacent main rails 8 and crossing rails 9 are adapted to limit thedownward movement of the bars 15.

From the foregoing the operation and advantages of the construction willbe evident to those skilled in the art. It will be understood that theflange 26 being of a greater diameter than the tread 27 of the movingwheel 28 will strike and move down one block 21 on the bar 15 and movethe bar 15 to raise the other block 21 and have the latter close the gap22 and have its top flush with the tops of the main and crossing rails 8and 9. While the flange 26 is still in a position to bear against oneblock 21 the tread 27 strikes the other block 21. which closes the gapso that the wheel passes aeross the gap 22 as on a continuons rail andwithout the shock7 jar, wear, and noise that would result if the wheelpassed over an open gap between the main and crossing rails.

The construction which has been particularly illustrated and describedadmits of minor changes and modifieations-wherefore the right isreserved to all such changes and modifications as do not depart from.the spirit and scope of the invention which is defined in the appendedclaims.

We claim:

l. In a railway crossing, the combination of main rails7 platesconnecting adjacent ends of the main rails, bars pivotally mounted onsaid plates, crossing rails separated from the main rails by gaps, andupright blocks movably fitted in said gaps and having their lower endsbearing` on the bars suliistantially as and to etl'ect the purpose setforth.

2. The combination with a railway crossing having main rails andcrossing rails and gaps between the main rails and the crossing rails,of plates connecting adjacent ends of the main rails, bars pivotallymounted on said plates and disposed obliquely to the ends of adjacentmain rails, and upright Y Copies of this patent may be obtained for fivecents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D.C.

